John L. Murray

Murray was born in Limerick in 1943 and educated at Crescent College, Limerick, Rockwell College, County Tipperary, University College Dublin, and the Honorable Society of King's Inns. He was twice elected President of the Union of Students in Ireland in 1966/67. He qualified as a barrister in 1967 and had a successful law practice dealing with commercial, civil, and constitutional law.

He was Attorney General of Ireland under the Fianna Fáil government from 17 August to 14 December 1982. The Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, appointed him as Attorney General after his predecessor, Patrick Connolly, resigned abruptly over the GUBU scandal, when a murderer Malcolm McArthur was arrested in Connolly's Dalkey flat.

His next term in office as Attorney General extended from 11 March 1987 to 25 September 1991. In 1988, he refused to allow the extradition of Fr. Patrick Ryan to Britain on explosives charges dealing with the Provisional IRA, on the basis that the trial he would be given would not be fair to due excessive media coverage and remarks made in Parliament by the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher which were considered prejudicial.

In 1991, he was appointed as a Judge of the European Court of Justice serving until 1999, when he was appointed to the Irish Supreme Court.

He served on the Supreme Court from 1999. He was appointed as Chief Justice of Ireland in 2004 and retired as Chief Justice in 2011, though he remained a member of the Supreme Court until 2015. As a former Chief Justice, he is a member of the Irish Council of State.

In 2011, Chief Justice Murray became involved in controversy with the Government over a proposal to amend the Constitution to allow the remuneration of judges to be reduced in parallel to the remuneration of public servants in State employment.[2][3]

The criticisms of the Government's plans were contained in a 12-page critique by Chief Justice Murray, and the President of the High Court, Nicholas Kearns, and published in the Court Services website, but subsequently redacted at the request of the Government.[4]

He retired from the Supreme Court in June 2015.[5]

Murray was appointed Chancellor of the University of Limerick (and so also Chairman of UL’s Governing Authority) in 2013.[6]

In January 2016, it was announced that the Minister for Justice and Equality had appointed Murray to conduct a review of the legislation allowing access to the phone records of journalists. Murray was asked to propose any legislative changes required, and to examine the legislation in other countries and examine best international practice in this area.[7]

Murray is married to Gabrielle Walsh, daughter of Brian Walsh, a former Supreme Court judge, described as "one of Ireland's greatest judges" and the "outstanding legal reforming mind of his generation" by Prof. John J. Lee,.[8]

His brother, Michael D Murray, is State Solicitor for Limerick City.[9]

• List of members of the European Court of Justice